1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a developer replenishment unit which is used for an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine, a facsimile machine and a printer having a developer device to form an image on an image bearing member with developer, for example.
2. Description of the Related Art
In an electrographic image forming apparatus such as a copying machine and a printer in the related art, fine powder toner has been used as developer. Then, when toner in the electrographic image forming apparatus main body is consumed, toner has been replenished to the image forming apparatus main body by utilizing a toner replenishment container as a developer storage container. Since toner is extremely fine powder, a method to discharge toner by small amounts from a small opening portion while the toner replenishment container is placed at the inside of the image forming apparatus main body so as to prevent toner scattering has been known for the toner replenishment operation.
For example, in FIG. 7 of Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2002-318490, a driving portion is provided to rotationally drive the toner bottle in the circumferential direction as being connected to the toner bottle. The driving portion is rotatably supported by a bearing and is rotationally driven by a driving motor (not illustrated) disposed in the apparatus main body.
When the rotational driving motor (not illustrated) is actuated in a state being capable of replenishing toner while an opening portion is opened as a sealing member departs from the toner bottle, rotational driving force is transmitted from the driving portion of the apparatus main body to a driving force receiving face as a driving force receiving portion of an engaging projection of the sealing member. Then, as the rotational driving force is further transmitted from the sealing member to a drive shaft, the toner bottle is rotated and toner is conveyed and discharged.
Further, a mechanism to linearly reciprocate the toner bottle (or a bottle holding member to hold the toner bottle) is illustrated in FIGS. 9 and 10 of Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2004-325841. With the technologies of Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2002-318490 and Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2004-325841, rotational driving of the toner bottle in the circumferential direction and reciprocating driving of the toner bottle in the axial direction can be automatically performed. However, since two motors are necessary as the respective driving sources, there has been a problem of apparatus upsizing.
In the related art as described above, a container rotating mechanism for toner replenishment and a container detachably attaching mechanism are provided. Then, in a case that the respective driving mechanisms are automatically operated for apparatus simplification, two motors are to be necessary. Accordingly, there has been a problem of upsizing.